She wondered much more than that, but as that wasn't her battle to fight, she didn't touch it.
Crystal flicked her hand. "If you don't want to investigate, then your presence is no longer needed."
Her shift, her air of indifference and the ease of her movements when she turned away from Margaret the leader of the most powerful coven was remarkable.
"Astra is lying," Tilly blurted. She had been holding the words inside of her since she first suspected it.
The woman tilted her head. Every move she made was calculated.
"I could feel it," she explained. "Dark magic has taken over our town, just look around. Feel the air."
Margaret lifted her eyes surveying their surroundings again. The trees swayed, pushing the autumn cool air back and forth.
"The use of dark magic will be investigated," she said slowly. "But it was reported as used by you. The Lost Souls Coven. Catchy name, if not a little dramatic."
Crystal smiled at her. "Come ladies," she beckoned and they followed after her, each with one last look given to the woman who watched them with serious, narrowed eyes.
"You know," Crystal paused, not looking at Margaret, but turning her head just so. "Your betrayal left something inside of my bones. I grew. I survived. I flourished." She turned her head fully until her blue eyes touched the other woman's. "I wonder if you would."
And then she continued, leaving behind those words like a living thing at the feet of the most powerful witch in the world to grapple with.
"What do we do?" Jen was the first to speak as they walked from the graveyard to the house.
Everyone naturally looked to Crystal who still had her head tilted to the sky, her delicate neck white and vulnerable. Tilly thought that she looked so human at this moment.
But then she lowered her gaze and said to the eight women following her, "Now we go to town and stake our claim."
There was a steady beat of thoughts Tilly could feel and hear inside of her with each of their heavy steps.
Only nine women.
There were only nine women trying to take on a town of people who would see them go.
"We are only nine," Tilly finally said. She couldn't hold the words inside of her any longer.
"Ten would be ideal," Crystal admitted but then she smiled, her wise eyes twinkling. "But nine of the greatest women I have known together is no small threat."
Day was officially upon the town and it was not a gentle start, as the sound of voices fighting against each other filled the air the closer they got to the town. Worry, fear, trepidation. Tillycould think of every emotion that held hands with anxiety and fear, and they would be here with them now.
Once they cleared the outer street of downtown and could see the center of Salem they all paused. The sound of clashing voices was now at a crest. Before them stood so many people that the nine women didn't dare move any further. Signs were being thrusted into the air by angry chanters calling them all kinds of names that paired well with "witch."
At the lead of the charge with a bullhorn was none other than Rob Sandis, suit on like a traveling salesman, his eyes covered in expensive sunglasses and his chest puffed out.
Eloise grabbed Jessica's hand but when she looked at the blonde woman she saw something more terrifying than a man yelling about taking away women's rights - a woman responding.
Jessica was poised, head high, blue eyes clear and mouth just barely smiling.
"She looks terrifying," Eloise whispered. Ursula nodded in shock.
"You know about some magic that will get us out of this that we don't?" Ursula asked.
Jessica shook her head. "No. But this ends now." The words were full of a conviction that punched through them all. Tilly felt it in the tingling of her fingertips and the cage of her chest, like some wild animal was rattling its cage.
An animal trying to get out.
Rage.
Astra, Beatrice and Esther walked down the main street of Salem, all in step and all wearing the same capes in emerald green that Margaret had been wrapped in. They looked formidable. Strong. The way that Astra's face didn't move, her eyes sharp on them like a weapon made Tilly's strength pause. The air dropped a few more degrees and leaves draped along branches lining the street dropped in a colorful shiver.
